The Landscape of Envisioning and Speculative Design Methods for Sustainable Mobility Futures

Helena Sustar, Miloš N. Mladenović and Moshe Givoni
Additional contact information
Helena Sustar: Learning Services, Aalto Open University; Espoo, FI-00076 AALTO, Finland
Miloš N. Mladenović: Department of Built Environment, Aalto University; Espoo, FI-00076 AALTO, Finland
Moshe Givoni: Department of Geography and the Human Environment: Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-24

Abstract: Urban mobility is facing an increased long-term uncertainty and complexity generated by accelerated technological development. These challenges require radical advancement in planning processes and methods, which could enable breaking out of path dependencies and unlocking alternative, sustainable futures. In order to provide a landscape overview of foresight-focused methods used in the domain of urban mobility, we conduct a systematic literature review. An analytical framework for review is based on planning knowledge taxonomy, including dialectic between knowing how/what and knowing to what end and doing. Such framework formulation is aiming to assess methodological capacity for widening system boundary and holism (object-focus) as well as integration and imagination (process-focus). Results show that the overall trend of methodological development is emphasizing development in object or process-focus domain, but rarely both. In addition to this assessment, we conclude that methodological development should further reflect the moral and democratic dimension concerning public deliberation. Such development should aim to create spaces for shared discussion, reflection, and formation of alternative futures, while allowing spaces for agonistic contestation and conflicting opinions through radical, experimental, and experiential approaches.

Keywords: mobility futures; mobilities; urban planning; imagination; future studies; scenarios; speculative design; utopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2447/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/6/2447/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:6:p:2447-:d:334931

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().